Can’t find the shaving can aisle at Target? Didn’t know about the 4th floor coffee bar at Nordstrom’s? Can an avatar point you towards Jimmy Choo shoes at Westfield Malls and give you some points? Want to kill time at SFO at a new Terminal 1 art exhibit? And about the shaving cream – can […]

It was interesting to see The New York Times’ Farhad Manjoo boldly assert that Snap was going to get eaten alive by Facebook and its new emphasis on augmented reality. Facebook has a major headstart with users, partnerships and sales channels. We’ll see about that – the Snap team has proved to be an agile […]

Yext’s well-managed IPO was exciting for the local industry, and will be great for the company. Three market days after the Thursday event — Monday afternoon — it sits above $13.90, up from $11 out of the gate. The money’s great. But there will be other plusses. The IPO establishes a clear valuation and gives […]

Pepsi’s getting a lot of grief on social media today, in the wake of an ad featuring Kendall Jenner, marching along with political protesters. I agree with the complaints: It is kind of crass for a soda brand to align itself with serious political events to win new customers. Pepsi’s effort, however, is not a […]

Yelp added Wi-Fi to its growing set of value added, “beyond advertising” SMB features today, acquiring Turnstyle Analytics for $20 Million in cash. The Toronto-based company, which competes with other nascent SMB Wi-Fi providers such ZenReach and WaveSpot, has 30 employees. Wi-Fi definitely fits in Yelp’s present mission statement of “connecting people with great local […]

Sometimes, you want to cut the telecom chord and rely on Wi-Fi and Skype. Well — Good luck with that! When you get beyond Starbucks, McDonalds and the public library, Wi-Fi signals can be kind of spotty. Currently, 28 percent of SMBs provide some type of Wi-Fi service, according to Unacast. Is there a good […]

Will local businesses ever use all the digital resources at their disposal to share information and help others succeed? It’s a social media concept that, on paper, always makes a lot of sense. MerchantCircle was an early version of it. Bizhive, Perch and Alignable provide various incarnations of it. San Francisco-based Townsquared is another. Founded […]